Delhi High Court’s decision, paving the way for Ukrainian woman to leave India with her minor son

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea filed by a man against the order of a family court which had rejected his guardianship petition seeking custody of his five-year-old son born to a Ukrainian woman. The high court said it was not inclined to interfere with the family court’s decision and the woman was free to leave India with her son, who is a Ukrainian citizen by birth.

The family court rejected the man’s guardianship petition on the grounds that it lacked territorial jurisdiction to entertain the petition, and he then approached the High Court. Earlier, the mother had filed a habeas corpus petition in 2022, which was later disposed of, giving the person freedom to approach the family court for interim custody or visitation rights in respect of the minor child. A division bench of Justice Rajeev Shakdhar and Justice Amit Bansal said that emotionally and financially, it would not be in the best interest of the minor child to remain in India apart from his mother and sister.

The court said its view was also in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adding that the child’s usual place of residence was Vinnytsia, Ukraine and that the child wished to live with his mother, who wished to return to her country. The Union Home Ministry filed an affidavit stating that the air strike took place in Vinnytsia, Ukraine on September 1, 2023. It further said that as per the advisory issued by the Indian Embassy in Kiev in October 2022, Indian citizens were asked to leave Ukraine. The bench said, however, that this advice would not apply to respondent No. 1 and the minor child as both of them are citizens of Ukraine.